Included in the many difficult decisions rental property owners must make is who to entrust with landscaping maintenance work. Many Moorhead property owners assume that their tenants will be responsible for keeping the yard in good condition. However, that might not always be the best course of action.
There are both pros and cons to assigning landscape maintenance to your tenant. Likewise, there are also pros and cons of taking care of it yourself (or hiring someone to do it for you). Making the right decision for your rental property will be easier if you take a closer look at the responsibility of landscaping from both sides.
Being the property owner, the most straightforward way to ensure property maintenance is getting done correctly is to hire a professional to do it. There are clear benefits to taking this approach to landscaping maintenance for single-family rental homes. For example, you won’t need to worry that your tenants will mistreat or neglect the lawn, trees, or other plants.
With proper tending, your rental house will always have great curb appeal, helping you preserve your property values. Making provisions for landscaping maintenance for your tenant might just become a big draw, helping you attract and keep higher-quality tenants willing to pay a bit extra for the convenience. After your rental property is rented, many states do not allow you to come on the property unless you give proper notice, or it is outlined in the lease agreement. Regardless, these are the reasons why handling landscape maintenance yourself may not be the best idea.
In addition to these concerns, if you plan to do the yard maintenance work yourself, you’ll need the time, skills, and tools to do the job right. If you don’t live near your rental property, this could be a big issue. Also, the time you spend caring for your property’s yard might not be the best way to go about it.
On the other hand, hiring a professional landscaping company will be an additional expense. If you have not considered figuring landscaping maintenance costs into your initial calculations, that could put an unwanted strain on your monthly cash flows. Affordable companies who do quality work are often hard to find. This might be the best part of having a property manager: they will have a list of service providers that may even do the work at a discount.
The most common way property owners deal with landscaping maintenance is to require your tenant to do it. Doing this has a lot of benefits. The tenant takes on the time and expense of mowing lawns, trimming bushes, and pulling weeds, freeing your time and money for other things. Moreover, tenants who have been renting single-family homes for many years often already have the tools and experience needed to do a decent job of taking care of your yard. They would be able to do a decent job of taking care of your property’s yard.
But you should remember that not all tenants are willing or able to live up to landscaping responsibilities. If you entrust yard maintenance to your tenant, you do run the risk of doing serious damage to the yard. Inadequate care could lead to dead or dying plants. Your rental home’s yard could quickly become a neighborhood eyesore. To add to that, a corresponding reduction of your property value could be an unwanted result. Another thing is if your tenants don’t already have a lawnmower or other tools, buying them could present a serious problem. Many tenants don’t want or can’t afford to invest in expensive lawn care equipment.
Even then, they may not know how to use such tools safely. You could create a situation where the tenant injures themselves, breaks or damages your landscaping equipment, or both. Any of these could result in unwanted legal problems unless careful steps are taken.
The decision on the care of your Moorhead rental property’s landscaping will greatly depend on your particular situation. Consider all the pros and cons and be realistic about your availability and budget.
If you need some advice on how to handle landscaping for your rental property or would like someone else to take care of it entirely, contact Real Property Management Optimum. You can reach us online or call us at 320-289-4649 for more information.
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